On creating and sharing Holograms…

AR and VR are interesting evolutions in the technology space. But beyond AR and VR is the evolution that will be Holograms. Based on a recent conversation with Alex Ledante (yes, interesting conversation in comments make it into my blog all the time!) we discussed the reality of Holograms. First, is the broad concept of the project an object that appears to have permanence in space. Traditionally projectors project to a physical object. A hologram projector would need to project to a point in space that had no wall or another object on which the project. The reality of projects is luminous and wall space. Interactive systems can easily be created where you mix projector and camera, such as what Keecker offers, providing a screen (projected) and touch interaction.

Now that is an initial step towards the concept of holograms, but it is not to that point. First, today the reality of holograms is they are projected between two specific points. In part that is because of the “luminous” needed to project a holographic image. It is more luminous than the majority of protectors support today. In part because of heat. Projecting light creates heat. Projecting a hologram today produces heat. That would be lots and lots of heat produced to generate that 3d image. Projectors are going to get better. Cooler and able to present Holograms. The someday uses include remote meetings and things like that where you can have a holographic seat at the table remotely.

That said, that requires the ability to capture a hologram. Now you find the reason why Holograms aren’t as widespread today as portable projectors. To create a hologram, you need a 360-degree view of an object, person or landscape. The larger the object to become a holographic image, the more camera you will need. Right now the minimum would be two 270 degrees camera a set distance apart. They, the cameras would create an overlapping forward image. That would need to be stitched together and the saved so that it could be presented. There would be a natural lag (between creation and projection) causing slight irregularities with remote viewing of a hologram. By the way, to tie in a previous post, the reality of 5g, would remove some of the latency for remote holograms.

Have you seen the hologram projections that have been produced to date

I am a long time blogger and technology poster.I focus on what is possible, but I also try to see what is coming. In recent years I have been focused on sharing the memories of my family, as part of my Family History Project.

I once gave a talk where I talked about the evolution of computing.
1940 to 1970 was the time of mainframes.
170-980 was the rise of minicomputers
1980 brings the birth of the Personal Computer
1990 brings the birth of the internet and the expansion of client-server
2000 brings the birth of distributed computer (grid computing)
2010 brings the evolution of the cloud, which is really just a few supercomputers with brand names (Azure, AWS, IBMCloud, Oracle Cloud, Google).
2020 the rise of 5g and IoE, the 4th Industrial Revolution.

I was booed. But 1/2 the audience lined up afterward to ask me why I felt we had come full circle.